Chapter Text
He was running. Through alleys and side streets, zigzagging and trying to loose them, even if he hadn’t heard their shouting for the last 5 minutes. Casey wasn’t paying attention to where he was running as long as he was gaining ground. Finally stopping to catch his breath at a dead end, he looked down, a sewer cover. He knew Raph lived in the sewers, he didn’t know exactly where but it was worth a shot. Not like they would think to look for him down there.
So he pulled off the cover and climbed down, struggling to move the metal disk back in place. He walked through the maze of tunnels, not bothering to run anymore, feeling safer down here than he would have initially thought.
After a few miles he starts to notice graffiti in the same style as the doodles he had seen in Raphael’s sketch book. He follows them, turning left and right, until finally he sees a tunnel that has a light glow coming from it.
Remembering that mutants live here and it would be rude to disturb them so late at night, (or was it early in the morning? Casey hadn’t bothered to check his phone yet.) he tiptoes in and tries to find Raph’s room. There’s a scurrying to his left, he whips around the face the sound. God, it’s probably the rats that live in the sewers, not to be rude about the fact that the turtles father is a giant rat.
“Just relax Jones. You don’t do scared, remember?” He whispers to himself and turns forward again.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“Oh fu-frick!”
Splinter is standing right in front of him, looking mad and ready to fight.
“Uh, sorry for coming over unannounced Mr. Hamato… but I was…uhh, hoping to talk to Raph…?” He fidgeted with the sleeves of his hoodie.
Splinter’s look of anger turned to worry as he got a better look at the kid. He hadn’t meet him before, but from Raphael’s description, he knew it was Casey. He had a few scratches on his face and was in his pajamas, shoes untied. It looked like he had been in a struggle.
“Ah, Casey are you hurt? Why is it that you are here?” Splinter spoke in a soothing voice, but Casey was showing clear signs of high anxiety.
“Yeah… I don’t really, can I just talk to Raphael please.” His voice wavered slightly as he gained a sudden interest in his shoes.
“Of course” Splinter said after a beat, leading Casey to take a seat on the couch, “help yourself to some tea, I just finished boiling the water.”
He went to get Raph.
Casey didn’t touch the tea.
—— —— ——
“Raph. Raphael, your friend has come over to see you.” Splinter gently shook his son awake.
“What, who would… what time is it?” Raph asked, rubbing his eyes.
“It’s 5 in the morning. Do you know why Casey would come to see you so early in the morning?”
“No, I didn’t even know he knew where we lived.” Raph gets up, following his dad to the living room.
As he walks in he sees Casey sitting there staring at the steam coming from the kettle of water.
“It’s five in the morning Case, what the heck, why are you here?” He asks grumpily as his dad goes to get the first aid bag.
“I just didn’t really think when I was headed here? I mean I could have gone to my dad’s but, I don’t really like it there, an’ I don’t think he’d appreciate me showing up there like this.” Casey responds looking up at Raph.
“What do you mean…?” He suddenly looks more awake.
Splinter walks in with the first aid kit and Casey looks back down again.
Raphael takes the kit from his father.
“I’ll let you boys talk. If you need me I’ll be in my room, Raphael.” He nods at his son.
Alone in the room, Raph starts to clean the cuts on Casey’s face.
“Casey what’s happening, why can’t you be at home right now?”
Casey thought for a moment, the turtles technically had papers right? They had to deal with that whole citizen thing when they finally were discovered. Sure, Casey had only known Raph for barely a year, but they hung out always and if he had subconsciously ran here over going to his dads, then that must have meant he was safe here.
“You know how there have been those ICE raids over in Bronx? Well they came to our apartment building earlier and…uh, well I didn’t think this would ever be relevant, but my mom’s not here legally, she overstayed her visa, Raph. I mean, I was born here, but my mom is here illegally.” Casey sighed, letting Raphael apply bandages to his face. “And we thought that the landlord wouldn’t tell anyone, but I guess it was stupid of us to trust him. ICE came by asking if he knew of any illegals and he decided to be a jackass and rat us out. He owns the building so I guess it counts as consent enough for them to search the apartment. Anyway, they got my mom and… I know I should have went with them even if they couldn’t technically deport me, but I fucked up. My fight or flight instincts must have kicked in because I bit the man, grabbed the bag my mom made me pack out of paranoia and booked it down the fire escape.” Casey finished, eyes glossy and voice strained.
“Shit” Raph had finished tending to Casey’s cuts and placed the bag to the side, “And why… why the cuts on your face?” He asked not really knowing how to handle this situation.
“It fine Raph, you don’t have to try to say anything, or help really.” Casey said as if he could tell that Raphael had no idea now to deal with all this new information. “I just need a place to stay for a bit… I understand if I can’t stay here, but it would be nice to be with someone I trust.”
“Not that you can’t stay here, unless dad says no, which I doubt he will, but why didn’t you go to your father’s first? Are you worried that if they find you they will apprehend him as well?”
“No, he and my sister are both legal citizens. I just don’t like going there as much as my sister does.”
“Oh, okay” The two sit in silence.
“It was plants by the way.” Casey says.
“Huh?”
“The scratches, our neighbor below us has a hobby of collecting spiky plants. I ran through some hanging ones.” Casey smiles just barely.
“Hah, dumbass.” Raphael smirks slightly, nudging Casey.
The steam from the kettle is gone now.
—— —— ——
“I should tell my dad about this. I’ll ask if you can stay. Do you want to stay here, or you can wait in my room if you want?” Raph gets up grabbing the first aid kit.
“I’ll go with you…but I don’t really feel like telling it all again”
Raphael and Casey walk to Splinter’s room. Raph tells a shorter version of Casey’s story and asks if he can stay. It bothers Casey for some reason, but he can’t seem to understand why it would.
Splinter thinks for a moment than says to Casey “You can stay for as long as you need, but I hope you understand that you must resolve your situation with the proper authorities within the week or I will not allow you to stay longer.”
“Sure, thank you Mr. Hamato” Casey mumbles dismissively.
—— —— ——
“Come on. You can crash on my bed Casey. It has curtains around it, my brothers shouldn’t bother you in the morning.” Raph whispers as the two sneak into the bedroom.
“I don’t wanna take your bed Raph. We can just share it, besides I don’t feel like being alone and it’s too early to be awake right now.” He doesn’t want his best friend to have to sleep on the floor because of his own stupid mistakes. Casey sets down his backpack, takes off his hoodie and stuffs it in, leaving him in his tank top, and takes out his charger and phone. Next to him he can hear Raph messing with blankets and muttering.
“You got an outlet down here?” He asks holding up the tech.
“Yeah, I’ll plug it in.” Raph takes the charger and phone.
They settle in, Raph’s blankets surround them and Casey thinks he’s never felt this comfy and safe. Raphael closes the red curtains and wishes Casey a good night. Casey faces the wall and can feel Raph’s shell up against his back. Despite all the stress from earlier, his stomach does a little drop at the contact and he feels his face heat up.
“Damn, maybe I didn’t think this through enough.” Casey mutters to himself, hearing Raph start to snore.
—— —— ——
Mikey had woken up first that morning. It wasn’t usual but last night he had been doom scrolling and had found a really cool recipe for fluffy pancakes that he’d heard Donnie talk about. So, inspired to cook he climbed down, kicking a backpack that was near the bottom of the ladder. He looked down at it. It didn’t look like Raph’s usual style, all patched up, covered with drawings made with white sharpie. But he thought nothing more of it and went to the kitchen to get to work.
Leo was the next to wake up. He woke up at 7:30 every morning, even on weekends. Like he had an internal clock or something. He wanders out of the room, following the sounds of cooking. He doesn’t notice the backpack.
Donnie does. As soon as he opens the flap of his tent he looks across the room and sees the backpack sitting there. And he knows who it belongs to.
Walking into the kitchen, Donnie makes sure that everyone knows who’s backpack was on the floor next to Raph’s bed. Whether they had previously noticed it or not.
“What the hell is Casey Jones doing in our house?”